The present invention relates to a system for animal identification and more particularly to a system for electronically tagging and monitoring the body temperature of livestock using internal transponders that are integral with a bolus and made to reside in the reticulum or rumen of ruminants.
It is well known to have ruminant animals ingest a permanent magnet so that any ferrous material that is ingested by the animal will be retained by the magnet in the reticulum rather than any ferrous material passing through the animal causing possible internal injury to the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,632 to inventors Hannon et al. teaches an electronic identification system for ruminant animals comprising a transmitter capsule precoded to broadcast a series of binary pulses peculiar to the animal, the transmitter capsule being designed by adjusting its specific gravity to reside permanently in the animal's second stomach or reticulum. The electronics are encapsulated in a housing of a material which can be accepted physiologically by the animal and yet not be attacked by other contents in the animals reticulum. The specification indicates that capsules with specific gravity of approximately 1.7 or greater have successfully retained and permanent retention is assured with specific gravity of 2 or greater. In the preferred embodiment, the electronics and a weight are inserted in a glass housing and the capsule is then evacuated and sealed off. Quartz and fiberglass are also mentioned as suitable materials for the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,008 by inventors Stafford et al. teaches a bolus for administration to a ruminant animal and for retention in the rumen or reticulum of the animal, the bolus having an electronic identification device housed therein with an identification code encoded in the electronic device, and a permanent visual representation of the identification code on and/or within the bolus.
Traumatic Retuculoperitonitis, known more commonly as hardware disease in cattle, is an infection in the stomach wall caused by swallowing of dangerous metal objects which penetrate and embed themselves in the stomach wall. The disease can be fatal once hardware starts to affect the heart and liver organs. Serval types of dangerous metal objects when swallowed can cause hardware disease in cattle. Wire that is used in hay bales or pieces of barbwire that is left scattered on the ground are two worst types of metal for cattle. To prevent hardware disease, bolus permanent magnets are routinely placed in the reticulum of ruminant animals which collect these dangerous metal objects and prevent their penetration into vital origins of the an animal.
The device of Stafford et al. is not practical as in addition to the teaching of Stafford et al. an additional magnetic bolus must also be ingested by the same animal to preform its purpose. In addition the Stafford et al. device is fragile in construction see column 7, at lines 52-67 of the patent and with normal animal activity the device of Stafford et al. could bang against a magnetic bolus causing damage, inoperable or inaccuracy to the Stafford et al device. As the magnetic bolus in the same animal acquired ferrous material the Stafford device would become even more susceptible to damage or destruction. Also it is believed that a magnetic field adjacent to the Stafford et al. device would interfere with its expected operation if a specific magnetic flux orientation relative to the Stafford et al. described transponder was not maintained.
There is a need for a combination magnetic identification and temperature bolus. A bolus of this type would find wide spread acceptance in the field of ruminating animal husbandry.